Introduction: Cities, States, Global Environmental Politics

Abstract

The recent rise of cities in global environmental politics has stimulated remarkable debates about sustainable urban development and the geopolitics of a changing world order no longer defined by tightly bordered national regimes. This book explores this major theme by drawing on approaches that document the diverse histories and emergent geographies of “internationalism.” It is no longer possible, the book argues, to analyze the global politics of the environment without considering its various urbanization(s), wherein multiple actors are reforming, reassembling, and adapting to nascent threats posed by global ecological decay. The ongoing imposition and abrasion of different world orders—Westphalian and post-Westphalian—further suggests we need a wider frame to capture what the critical theorist of internationalism, Josep Antentas (Antipode, 47: 1101–1120, 2015), drawing on Daniel Bensaȉd, calls the “sliding scale of spaces.” The book will therefore appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners interested in global sustainability, urban development, planning, politics, and international affairs. Case studies and grounded examples of green internationalism in urban action presented later in the discussion ultimately explore how select city-regions are trying to negotiate and actually work through this postulated dilemma.